Apples hanging

"THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND, " is showing at Thomas Dane Gallery until 26th May.
It is original, impressive and beautiful...


"I WILL WLK DOWN TO THE END WITH YOU IF YOU WEILL COME ALL THE WAY WITH ME, "is a great big mesh of macarme, a hand-knotted hop twine. Gallaccio square-knotted perfectly throughout. It is magically hung for her first solo show at Thomas Dane Gallery and looks rather like a life-size spider's webb taking over the Gallery space, intimidating everyone around with its scissor reminiscent design. Displayed in this magical sence, it drapes above and around the walls and onto the floor imitating a hammock.

Anya Gallaccio belongs to the "Brit-Art" generation of artists. She makes artwork which can clearly be seen as explorations of effects from growth and decay. An interesting aspect about the way she works is that she claims to be drawing when not actually using a pencil. Whithout using a pencil, she draws: For example the task of pressing flowers till they eventially rot can be a drawing. This is simply as she can produce lines and a whole range of marks with those materials. In doing this she manages to represent it to us in this interesting light, better still without the use of a pencil. To list some of her creations: pressing of flowers with glass until they rot, capturing and recording the transformation. She has also built a block of ice weighing 34 tonnes including rock salt in its core, this was left it to collapse of its own accord! She has even been known to paint chocolate onto walls and watch it disolve and change colour or rather discolour. This has relevence to my current work as I am working with natural /organic materials such as flowers, flower-heads, petals, etc.. I am keen to transform these into a comletely different appearance by taking them apart in some way and giving them new identities as it were. I plan to work with other materials, like glass and china. Anya Gallaccio has had her work hung in many ways, more appropriately suspended from walls and ceillings. The hanging of delicate apples such as the piece I have selected bellow requires a lot of attention. The spaces between the apples have to be exact.

There is a strong invitation for interaction from the viewer within Gallaccio's work. The hanging of each piece tempts the on-looker to take a closer look and to want to touch and be closer to it:

"Revos d'or," 2006. This bronze cast of an actual tree is positioned in an inappropriately too small space for it to sit comfortably. This forces viewers to pass by to it extremely closely, so that they have to brush against it, at the very least, in order to enter the next room and take a look at the following pieces. This encourages participation from an audience. The apples hung to the tree dangle from bright red string in a playful way, in yet another attempt to tempt its visiter.

At this point it is important not to forget that the "hammock", or "nets" which function as drawings, where repitition is most apparent, similarly has to be touched to be fully admired. This may be done so by standing in the corner or hovering underneath its enormity or better still crowched against the wall and itself which enables one to get a taste of the undenyable interactive atmosphere and see it for all its glory!...

Anya Gallaccio's piece here is using apples tied up on string. There are a variety of different sized spaces between them. From this particular angle the apples on the far lefthand side are much closer together and then gradually expand.

This popular artist is originally from Scotland and now works and lives in London. She is well established. She studied at Goldsmiths and became well known for minimalist structures. Her specific interest lies in the process. She welcomes the idea of unpredictability in her works. According to the artist "IT'S A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE MATERIALS AND ME ". Having established that process is the most vital part for Gallaccio's work, it is also apparent that the concept of repitition has a big part to play here also: As I have mentioned before and wish to reiterate, the hammock is made up of scissor-like shapes repeated throughout. THESE SQUARE KNOTS ARE CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT! Gallaccio has also made a number of other casts of objects including artichokes as well as trees and apples. GO AND SEE IT!... ( GWEN!)